Artists
Yuri Shimojo
Yuri Shimojo (下條ユリ) is a Tokyo-born, contemporary Japanese painter who lives and works between New York City and Kyoto. The last descendent of her samurai clan who lost all of her immediate family members by the age of 29, Shimojo has always used painting to express the interconnected emotions of impermanence. Using traditional Japanese watercolor or ground SUMI and SHU ink, her work combines the abstract and the surreal, often playfully and always evocative of the desire for universal compassion.
With minimal formal training in fine art, her style is grounded in the practice of classical Japanese dance and other traditional arts. Her publications include a memoir of her unique childhood with her late family. She also spent many years studying Hawaiian healing practices and spirituality. These experiences of moving between cultures have influenced her work throughout her life and continue to bring new sources of inspiration. She has exhibited in the U.S. and Japan and is in private and public collections around the world.